Black Ashes
by X-Bride
Summary: MikageXMamiya. Even after the duel, after death, he will never be alone. They came together, they loved, they left...into a world farther than Ohtori's. R&R! Reviw please.


**Black Ashes**

Disclaimer: I do not own Utena or any of its trademarks, characters, themes, or situations. Please R&R, and thank-you for taking your time and reading this !

**Note: Words italicized are spoken by Mamiya, and normal font is Mikage, okay? Thank-you!**

Down so deep, into a lonely blackness spiraling further into oblivion that God cannot even comprehend. So cold, so black, one may think that black could not get any darker, or ice could not get any colder than what the fallen duelist saw before his eyes. A distortion never before seen, truth be told. This reality, the world of midnight sameness, that doth hang onto his heart, melt into his heart, burn into his mind, kiss his sanity leaking as fast as if a waterfall came fleeting from the rocks.

Calling a name, a simply identity, a title pf birth, across a space of everlasting wonders and dreams. He fell in love with that name. He cherished his voice that carried that name, the syllables waltzing from his lips. The name echoed in the still air, bouncing off walls that cannot be seen.

No answer. He cried. Alone.

No said person reached out to speak.

His shadow, out of sight, out of reach.

Sadness, solitude, and misery- his only company.

'I don't want to die, don't want to die, don't want to die, don't want to die, don't want to die...' Mikage repeated to in his mind perpetually. He was so alone, he did not see the point in speaking when no one could hear him let alone help him. 'Mamiya...save me.'

All Mikage could think about now was that girl...Anthy Himemiya, the Rose Bride, whom he wanted dead. 'I hate her...'

Then again, he blamed himself harshly. He should not hate her because he had no one around him to hate him back, nothing but the cruel darkness as deep as Hell.

THUMP! THUMP!

'My heart?' Mikage thought, shocked and aware. 'I am surprised I have one left. A mere memory with a heart? Am I a memory that can be held close to someone's heart? Who can this heart belong to?'

_Mikage..._

M-Mamiya? Mamiya! Is that you? Where are you?

_Mikage..._

Mamiya, where are you?

_Look at yourself in the bleak and closed darkness...I am there inside of you._

Within me? How?

_You have fallen in love with me. I can never leave you._

My guide...

_My guardian..._

Do I dream again?

_I am here beside you, love._

Now and always?

_Yes; say you love me, Mikage._

I do, Mamiya. I do.

_Do it for all Eternity, because, that is all I ask of you..._

Yes.

The pale, pink- haired duelist sat in an unknown corner with hands like virgin ice. Little breaths, so quick, rushed out from him after the short vows between him and his Rose Bride.

"THENDTHEENDTHEENDTHEENDTHEENDTHEENDTHEENDTHEEND!" spoke the darkness all around the young man, full of nothingness and eerie despair.

'No! This is not the end! When Mamiya disappeared, that was the end, of everything. Now he is here with me...'

_No second thoughts?_

No.

_Stay here with me in the darkness?_

It's where we belong. Two embryonic beings in a pool of heavy night...

_Everlasting?_

It's there. It's there for us.

_It's time._

Let us go then. Mamiya...

_Mikage?_

Thank-you. My eternal rest in my endless vortex of solitude hath been relinquished because of you.

_My eyes upon you, two lost souls which doth hang in an open space that neither I nor you could see, can now at last look at only you forevermore. I love you, my prince._

I love you too, my prince.

_Shall I not be titled as The Rose Bride?_

No. You are not my possession, nor are you my property. Namely, you are a free person, body and soul. I do not want you to end up as the Revolution's Rose Bride. I would rather burn in the deepest pits of Hell than let that ever happen. No, Mamiya. You are Mamiya and Mamiya alone.

_Am I still your Rose Bride?_

Can a title be differed by comparison? You share both, my love, yet one shines in a palace as the other paces behind closed doors. The Rose Bride is a label. Mamiya is who you are and always will be. Yes, you are mine, and I will be yours.

_Forever? _

Yes. For all Eternity.

_Do you love me?_

Yes.

_More than anything in the world?_

Yes.

_Even in death?_

Till death do us part.

Mamiya's voice vanished. Darkness all around, the uncompassionate coldness began to fade. Behind Mikage, Mamiya knelt, wrapping his arms around the older boy.

_My love, my only love, deep in this darkness, what kind of fate have you suffered? I will stay strong for us both with courage to show you, you are no longer alone._

Turning his head halfway, Mikage's lips met Mamiya's soft and warm ones.

The path before us is now prepared...

(TBC...)

**AN: Thank-you so much for reading this ! Please send me reviews, nice ones, please! **


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